On this episode of The Edit, Home Beautiful editor Elle Lovelock invites you to join in on an important chat about what we actually want to do in the New Year.
Elle is joined by one of Australia’s most trusted home experts, Tara Dennis, to talk about something more realistic than resolutions: rituals for the new year that actually work.
Tara shares how she resets her space – and her head – when the year has left everything feeling a bit too full – drawers, diary, and brain included.
Instead of colour-coded chore charts and impossible routines, Tara walks Elle through small, repeatable habits: gentle decluttering, re‑styling a few key zones, lighting a favourite candle at the same time each evening, and creating tiny daily moments that signal, “you can exhale now.”
Together, Elle and Tara unpack the emotional clutter as much as the physical: the pressure to reinvent yourself every January, the guilt over unfinished projects, and the way our homes can quietly reflect that mental noise. Tara offers low-stress ways to let things go, rearrange what you already own, and build home rituals that support how you really live, not how you think you’re supposed to live.
“I’m a big believer in the classic neutrals for your base things – things that are difficult to change quickly, easily and affordably.”
Tara Dennis
There are unique stories from early on in her career, memories of making do and creating things by hand, and the realisation that styling and organising aren’t just about aesthetics, they’re a way of caring for yourself and the people you love.
If you’re looking for new year home reset ideas, simple decluttering rituals, or just a kinder way to start the year, this conversation with Tara is a trustworthy guide from someone you’ve had in your living room for years.
In this episode, we also meet expert buyer and marketer Paula Cincotta from OZ Design Furniture, who has a razor-sharp merchant brain and a designer’s eye for how we really live. From scouting international showrooms to curating the latest sofa trends and hero coffee tables for local homes, Paula talks through colour, curves and clever styling ideas she’s learned on her travels that make big trends feel surprisingly achievable with no renovation required.
“Colour and warmth and texture and tone… having a space that feels comfortable and inviting is where we’re heading to in 2026.”
Paula Cincotta, OZ Design Furniture
The Edit Episode 6
The Edit podcast from the team at Home Beautiful is supported by OZ Design and Luxaflex.
A space to connect and belong to a growing group of our audience who want to go behind the scenes of our glossy pages to discover exactly what makes a house a home.
We’re talking to our favourite people in the interiors world – designers, retailers, homewares heroes, and some unexpected interiors enthusiasts who’ll share what makes their own homes special, from the first memories of the spaces they inhabited in childhood to how they live and entertain today.
Listen now: Episode seven of The Edit is available via the iHeart app, homebeautiful.com.au, or wherever you get your podcasts watch below or listen here.
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